The blog has been neglected!

Welcome back after this amazingly long time of silence! We've been neglecting the blog terribly. Well, that is, I have. It's like writing a diary. I have been given about 10 diaries in my life and I always set of with the best ambitions of writing things in each day. A week later the entries got smaller and smaller and two weeks later I tossed the diary in a corner and forgot all about it. But the blog shouldn't end up like that. After having received some emails from faithful readers who were wondering whether we were buried under all the heavy snow in Germany and therefore unable to reach the computer ever again, I decided that it is finally time to get back to the good old discipline of sharing our Germany adventure news with you wonderful people. And now that I've restarted I can already say that it is not as much a discipline as it is joy to be able to let you know what we have been up to.

The truth is, our life has finally gotten into some kind of routine, our German routine. In early March, Michael enrolled in a German course in Leipzig (at the Volkshochschule if that rings a bell for anyone). The course goes through to May and he has classes Monday to Friday until 12 or 1pm. He loves it although it can be hard keeping up with the vocab and grammar. He's making great progress and I am confident that he will be good at German by the end of the year. Papa spends many evenings at the dining table to teach him German with a Saxony accent, I'm not quite sure how that goes down =)

Spring has finally arrived here and we've had some very lovely and pleasant days of sunshine and blue skies. These days are still very rare but at least the days are longer and it doesn't get dark so early anymore. As soon as the snow started to melt, a multitude of flowers fought their way through the snow out of the ground. The trees are budding, birds are giving us concerts every morning outside our window and the first migrant birds can be seen as they return from Africa. Nature is re-awakening which is so suitable as we are in the Easter season which is all about resurrection. The world around us has been resurrected and reminds us each day of the resurrection of our Saviour.

I have started a job at a furniture shop the size of Ikea. It's lovely work in the office helping costumers finance their purchases. Lovely colleagues, nice work, and I'm finally earning some money!

Michael and I have been enjoying the culture in Leipzig. This year is the 325th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach and as THE Bach city in the world, Leipzig is putting on many events in celebration. Past weekend, the new Bach Museum and Bach Archives opened and we attended a very impressive concert at the Thomaskirche (St Thomas Church) with the Thomanerchor (St Thomas Boys Choir). Tonight we have St Matthew's Passion in the Gewandhaus to look forward to.

My dad has been taking a week of work and together with Michael he has been busy extending our house by a whole room! Michael has been learning a lot of practical skills, I think. He's also busy taking many photos of all the flowers in the garden and has built himself a tripod!

Life is good. We are enjoying each day as it comes and are feeling very happy being here. Stay posted. There WILL be more posts and the blog won't be neglected that much anymore...

Lots of love from the Rudolph's